Each point of law or issue discussed by a judge in a case is summarized by our editors and included as a “Topic” in the headnote.
Each topic is assigned a Key Number. For example “Criminal Law - Topic 5855” is the Key Number assigned to topics in every case involving sentences for robbery. This number can be used to quickly find, for example, all robbery sentencing cases without worrying about how to configure a search or what search words to use. The key numbers are categorized under 151 titles, such as Criminal Law, Family Law, Evidence, etc. (For a complete list click on “Key Numbers”).

Use Search Case Law to search one or more of the jurisdictional case law databases.
You can craft your search using just words and phrases, or you may want to use certain search engine operators to refine your search. Select the databases you want to search. (Note that the National Reporter database contains Supreme Court of Canada cases that may be useful in your research). Once your search string is complete and the databases you want to search selected, click Search. You can refine any hit list using the Query Within feature.

Use Recent Cases to search for recent cases or to view the latest SCC judgments.
Select the databases you want to search, and click Search for Topical Indexes with Links to Recent Decisions. Or you may click Recent SCC Cases to view the latest Supreme Court of Canada Cases.